Flexicoker

I had similar issues at UTA my first or second year. I failed many classes, and got a lot of shitty grades. I was on academic probation at one point. I seriously considered changing my major to art or industrial design where I could still 'create' albeit at a less technical level. What made me decide to stick with engineering was taking a hard look at the stuff I enjoy doing. My favorite thing in the entire world is racecars. I figured if I could get out of school, and make a decent income working on racecars I would be happy. Formula SAE was drug of choice as well, and I would not trade that for anything. I learned vastly more practical knowledge designing and building racecars in the basement of Woolf Hall then I did in my classes. But it wasn't because the material was not covered in class (although some of it wasn't), I'm just not very good at school. The way I learned the class material was by applying it to those cars. I have to touch, draw, and make to learn. If you don't think that engineering for the rest of your life will make you happy, then change majors. There's no shame in changing your mind. But if you think its what you want to do, then find a way to persevere and make it through. There is shame in being a quitter, and you'll be kicking yourself for the rest of your life for missing out on having a career you enjoy. I graduated in December, and now I'm living near Detroit working for the company that does most of GM's racing programs and a lot of cool research projects. All of my projects are challenging and very fast paced, and I'm working my ass off, doing fun engineering, and hopefully earning the respect of my colleagues. My accomplishments in Formula SAE absolutely helped me get where I am, and helped make up for my poor grades. I think it's extremely valuable when you're looking for a job and can say "I did this, I used these tools, here are my results" rather than the "I'm a hard-worker and a team player" resume fluff bullshit. Based on my friends who have graduated from UTA with a Bachelors in ME or AE in the last couple of years and gotten a job in the DFW area, a starting salary of $45-55k is pretty typical.

Doesn't the flywheel already pilot on the OD of the rear of the crank? My first thought when seeing the 'shave 6mm' modification was that is purpose was to shorten the length of that segment of the crank, in order to move any torsional modes to a higher frequency, and out of the (now higher) RPM range of the engine. However, that portion of the crank is so short and large in diameter that it doesn't seem like this would do much. Especially since a lower moment of inertia flywheel could have a much greater impact on that harmonic. Maybe instead, that is a solution to bending vibration caused by the combination of cyl6 firing, and cantilever mounting of the flywheel? (section 8 of the BHJ link Josh posted) Some close up pictures of Monzster's crank failure might help to explain whether the fatigue failure was in torsion or in bending.

Was 11.5 ft-lbs at the bottom end of the range on your torque wrench? Torque wrenches can be very inaccurate at the end of their range. I think this is more likely than poor quality bolts.

This is something I can do... I need to have it running this weekend, however. So I can install the spraybar and spraybar cam towers now, with either cam, and send the other cam and rockers to get ground at my convenience. Which cam should I make the 'hot' one? If I've got the spraybar either way, does it matter if its internally oiled as well?

The original reason for asking about the shaving is because the head was already off, and already headed to the machine shop to get cut (there was some slight erosion from where the head gasket was leaking) So if cutting more would be helpful, and realistic without buying more parts, then I'd do it. Since its not though, its just getting cleaned up and going back on. I do have an early 'A' cam, rocker arms, cam towers, and spray bar. If its any better, I can put it back together with that cam just as easy as I can put it back together with the stock cam. It might be marginally less worn as well. When I build an engine in the future, it will most likely not use any parts from this one. But since that might be a year or two away, the goal is just increased smiles per mile until I can afford to do it the way I really want to do it =)

I never said it was a blown head gasket... more like a coolant weeping head gasket =) I would do everything at once if I could, but time and money situations force incremental improvements. Porting and increasing compression ratio by itself might not gain much now, but can set the foundation for other improvements down the road. I don't have any big resistance to cam tower shims, I just can't afford them, new valves, and the time to source it all at the moment. I do have access to an earlier cam though...

Shady: The goal was to omit the cam tower spacers entirely, leaving the valvetrain geometry completely stock, and correct the cam timing using the adjustments on the stock sprocket. It seems the timing chain slack was the wink link in my plan. Since there's no simple way to take care of that (kameari idler gear setup is not cheap), I'll just put it back together stock. Oh well! Thanks for your input.

Hello, I've got a F54/P79, bone stock, but megasquirted in my 240Z. The head gasket gave way and I'm taking the opportunity to replace valve stem seals and lap the valves. If I have the time, I plan to do some mild port cleanup. What I'm curious about, is why can't I shave the head .080 like is common practice, but just correct my cam timing using the adjustments provided with the stock cam sprocket? My math says shaving .080" will only retard cam timing 2 degrees. Taking into account the stretch of the chain, jumping to the next 4 degrees advanced position will probably be just right. This would avoid new valves and cam tower shims. Does the tensioner not have enough travel to accommodate the additional slack? Also, when shaving this much are there any piston/valve clearance issues with a stock cam, and stock flattop pistons? I realize the only way to do this right is to measure the piston/valve clearance. But this is my only form of transportation, so whatever I do has to be quick cheap, and reliable. If there are any doubts of this working, I will just put it back together in stock form. The only chance I have to make it any faster is when something breaks and I can do something "while I'm at it" =) Thanks! -Eric

Those AMOT thermostatic valves look very similar to the thermostat on an E46 M3... When its cold, and the thermostat blocks the opening to the radiator, it opens up a very large passage right back into the inlet of the waterpump, when its hot it closes the passage back into the waterpump, and opens up the passage to the radiator with the same little moving cylinder. I gather thats what AMOT means by "fully automatic 3-way fluid temperature controller." Pretty cool

I had a similar thing happen on my 240Z. Turns out the slave cylinder was leaking, it was all perfectly contained by the boot, so I couldn't see the leak. When I pulled the boot back, and bunch of fluid came squirting out. Its possible that he added fluid to the reservoir lately and thats why its at the normal level. Other things to check: The little pin where the clutch master attaches to the pedal clutch fork might be cracked or broken If its none of those its got to be the clutch itself or the throwout bearing. good luck!

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2010/5/10824.html crazy!!!

It was for a '73 with a dealer installed system, but with an '81 compressor. I do not remember what the fittings were, but I believe they made lines that attached directly to the factory '81 Hitachi compressor.

http://www.rayeveritt.com/Parts/Hoses/Hoses.html I had him make some hoses for my car. I don't remember how much it cost, but it was less than a local AC shop wanted.

Wow, that cameraman almost got clobbered by that flying tire

I bought that radiator for my Z from the same place, and haven't had any problems with it. It looks very similar to the one that MSA sells. I also use the MSA aluminum shroud with 2 electric fans and have been really happy with it, even though it makes things cramped in front of the engine. I did buy another one before that on eBay that was a piece of junk, "cool auto parts" I think, stay away from them. The core looked like a trapezoid when I pulled it out of the box.

I can't tell by looking at it if you have the flyback stuff, but I was having a similar issue. It was caused by noise from the flyback circuit causing all of those voltage spikes. It killed my BIP373 and voltage regulator circuit one day. After I replaced the damaged components, I disabled the PWM stuff and ran the car AT VERY LOW DUTY CYCLE ONLY to verify that was the problem. Problem was gone. After that I installed the resistors, and disabled all the PWM stuff permanently and the problem has not come back. read this entire thread: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=154385

Are you running low impedance injectors and using the peak and hold drivers?

That is a scary pit lane

http://www.diyautotune.com/catalog/bosch-bip373-coil-driver-mod-kit-p-230.html

ya, the giving the tire time to 'recover' argument is ridiculous. To paraphrase the article I posted before... you've got a signal, which is the power generated by combustion, and the noise, which is inertia torque. At high RPMs inertial loads dominate, and this creates alot of 'noise' in the torque seen by the tire. So 2 big bangs, or 4 smaller bangs should have the same average power output, so the signal is staying roughly the same. The inertia torque (noise) however, is significantly reduced. Note that inertia torque is different than vibrations that may occur in the engine, and apparently the big bang motors have more vibration than the screamers. Also, with larger peak torque pulses, the internal engine components will also have to be stronger. So its a not win-win scenario, just a better compromise in some cases.

The point is not to have even pulses... http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?cmd=print&id=4191600

Do you have a wideband? Thats where I would start if you don't. What I did was: Set the entire AFR table to the same value, I chose 13:1. Once it fires up, what happens? does it go rich or lean? Watch the VE table and AFR and adjust accordingly. Once its running for more than a second, Under the ignition options, set 'fixed timing' and a value of 10 degrees or so. Adjust the trigger offset until you see 10 degrees on your pulley. Does that help? or are your problems with other stuff?

Maybe I got lucky... but I had sprayed mine with WD-40 a few days in advance and after a few hits with a lead mallet, they both came right out.

Hey guys, I just purchased a Mikuni Racing triple sidedraft manifold that I'd like to mount a triplet of IDF style throttle bodies to. Does anybody know of a source of affordable adapters that could do this? I could machine some pretty easily, but I'd rather buy some if the price is right